Governments around the world are interested in your Facebook information now more than ever. The social media giant recently released a report which shows a spike in state requests for personal data and content restrictions during the first quarter of 2015.
According to the numbers, Government requests for account data rose 18% in the first half of 2015 to 41,214 accounts. In contrast, there were 35,051 requests during the second half of 2014.
On the content side, governments ordered 20,568 pieces of content restricted for violating local law, a 112% increase over the second half of 2014, which drew 9,707 requests.
Reuters says that 60% of these requests come from US based law enforcement agencies. These organizations asked for data from 26,579 accounts, an increase from the 21,731 accounts in the second half of 2014.
In terms of content restrictions, India and Turkey accounted for the lion's share of requests. The former nearly tripled its tally from the second half of 2014, by having 15,155 pieces of content removed for violating local law. The former had 4,496 items restricted, a small increase from the 3,624 it notched during the previous bi-annum.
In the announcement, Facebook Deputy General Counsel Chris Sonderby stresses that the company won't hand over your data without going through due process first.
"As we have emphasized before, Facebook does not provide any government with "back doors" or direct access to people's data. We scrutinize each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere." He writes. "If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary."
As the global debate around privacy and government surveillance heats up, expect the buzz around this topic to only grow in the years to come.
